US military to create japanese comic books

The US military is using manga to teach a new generation in Japan about the importance of the countries' half-century security alliance.

A new comic book series features an American boy called Usa-kun - a word play on USA and ''usagi'', Japanese for rabbit - who wears a hooded jacket with bunny ears and befriends a Japanese girl, Anzu Arai.

In the first issue of Our Alliance - A Lasting Partnership, to be published online today, the boy tells Anzu that he has come to defend her home, as they are ''important friends''.

The United States is publishing the Japanese-language comic as the countries mark the 50th anniversary of the security treaty, and two days before the 65th anniversary of the US dropping an atom bomb on Hiroshima.

Over the past year, Japan's new centre-left government strained ties by publicly toying with the idea of moving a controversial US airbase off the southern island of Okinawa.

In the four-part comic series, the two characters ''explore and learn about the US military in Japan and its role in the US-Japan alliance''. The manga format was ''a very common way of communicating'', said Major Neal Fisher, of the US Forces' public affairs office in Japan.

''A lot of people love manga … Manga is a very light-hearted way to carry information'' on where the US bases are, what they do and how they co-operate with the Japanese forces, he said.

The US, having led the occupation of Japan after World War II, has 47,000 troops stationed around the country.

The comic will be published on www.usfj.mil/manga.

via Latest US signals are in manga.